Bill on repeat offenders’ e-tagging to be tabled in PA soon: Wahab

Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab announced on Wednesday an electronic tag would be put around a foot or an arm of repeat offenders with the permission of courts so that the Sindh government could monitor their movement in bid to control street crime.

A bill in this regard would soon be presented before the Sind Assembly, he said while speaking on an e-tagging programme of the provincial government. Wahab said the police and the prosecutor would approach the courts in such cases and submit an application that the repeat offender had carried out offences for a certain number of times. “If the court wants to give bail to such offenders, it can, but the [law enforcement agencies] will monitor their movement,” he said, adding that so that they could monitor their whereabouts.

The government with the permission of courts would attach the devise to the repeat offender’s foot or arm, which would help them monitor their movement. “It is similar to the kind he of tracker which is installed in motorbikes or cars,” he explained.

After consultation in the standing committee, the bill in this regard would be tabled in the Sindh Assembly and the government would get it approved, said the city administer, who is also a spokesman for the provincial government.

If the offender tried to remove the devise, the law enforcement agencies, he said, would get to know. The police would sprint into action if the tracking devise was removed from the offender, he said.

As for the safe city project plan, which is about the installation of CCTV camersas, he said, its PC-1 had been prepared with the input of police and other law enforcement agencies. The organisation that would operate the CCTV cameras would have the sensitive information, due to which in the PC-1 it was decided that any governmental body would operate it. “In Lahore and Islamabad, it is not being operated by any government agency,” he said.

The National Radio Telecommunication Corporation, which is our government agency, would be taken on board for this and the provincial cabinet had also approved this and the PC-1 in this regard had also been finalized for Rs28 billion, noted Wahab. The safe city officers told the chief minister that the project would be implemented in three phases.